Radio Drama Draws Mississippi College Audiences

Fans of old time radio shows are in for a rare treat at Mississippi College’s Aven Little Theater.

That’s the place where audiences will get a little nostalgic and be entertained during student productions on the Clinton campus running from February 24^th through March 5.

They’re calling the show “AM in the PM: An Evening of Radio Drama.” The production of the MC Department of Communication is directed by professor Phyllis W. Seawright.

The evening features live music, sound-effects, and student actors recreating an atmosphere and experience of a live radio broadcast before a studio audience, she says.

One of the program’s works was penned by communication professor Tim Nicholas, who grew up in Atlanta listening to favorite radio shows like “Gunsmoke” and “Have Gun Will Travel.” Other favorites of his in the early 1960s in Georgia were shows like “Suspense” and “Yours Truly, Johnny Dollar.”

The MC program at Aven Little Theater will feature one of the works of Nicholas titled “The Carl Thibodeaux Show: You’re On the Air.” It deals with people who have squandered their time. His show was last performed about a dozen years ago at Jackson’s New Stage Theatre in a program for new playwrights.

The vintage radio plays at MC will also feature versions of dramas like “Casablanca” that portray legendary detective Humphrey Bogart. There also will be a production that focuses on great radio shows like “Fibber McGee and Molly.”

Performers in the MC production include Judith Pollard of Clarksdale, Ann Howard of Canton, Aaron Hancock of Clinton, Ariss King of Ridgeland, Lexie Smith of Laurel, Micah Smith of Brandon and Elyssa Lassiter of Vicksburg.

MC’s production is a throwback to another era.

In the age before television, radio drama achieved widespread popularity in the United States starting in the 1920s. For instance, radio station KYW broadcast a season of complete operas from Chicago in November 1921. In February 1922, Broadway musical comedies with original casts aired from radio station WJZ’s studious in Newark, New Jersey. Perhaps America’s most famous radio drama broadcast remains Orson Welles’s “The War of the Worlds,” a 1938 version of the H.G. Wells novel. A large number of listeners believed there was an actual invasion from Mars.

Performance dates at Mississippi College are:

February 24, 25 and 26 at 7 p.m. and February 27 at 2:30 p.m. with the final performances March 4-5 at 7 p.m.

Tickets are $5 for all MC faculty, staff, all students and senior adults. The price is $7 for general admission. For reservations, call 601.925.3935.